In these inclement times –
fear stoking anxiety –
we seek anchors,
faith to carry us
Imagination offers an outlet,
distracts from the angst –
a creative reprieve
to lift our spirits
(Art my own)
Author: VJ
Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.
Master Player
Not a team player,
Change likes to spike the ball –
first to the net, a master
derailing strategy
I sit on the sidelines –
age having dulled reflexes –
amused that I ever thought
I could beat such an opponent.
(Image my own)
We Are Mermaids
Severity of disease
defines degree of marginalization
Who will enter the darkness;
rub shoulders with despair?
Disability is entrancing
but doesn’t invite engagement
We are mythical creatures,
those of us whom fate has chosen
Passage aborted, movement
encumbered, we fantasize
about normalcy –
to be forgiven, just a day
That we might shatter
our barricades, and bound
carefree into the ocean waves –
like the mermaids that we are.
(Image my own, aided by AI)
Burrs
How many winter walks
ended with burrs matted
in curly Wheaton hair?
How you wriggled
to escape the grooming;
how we laughed at
jokester antics?
Your spirit still fills
the empty spaces
I hear the jingle
of your collar, catch
a whiff of terrier fluff
Pull on an invisible leash
whenever I encounter burrs.
(For our former, cherished companion, whose memory still lingers. Image mine)
Post-Celebration Pause
A wrapping paper remnant
glimmers beside sofa leg
Uneaten chocolates and
sugar cookie delights tempt
The chorus of voices
fades into mind’s recesses
The fullness of the day
tucked warmly within
The advantage of age
is the ability to imbibe
in the post-celebration pause.
(Wishing everyone the warmest of pauses this holiday season.)
Greetings to all
We’ll be celebrating Christmas with the family today. No matter what your beliefs or tradition, let me take this moment to wish you all the best of the season. 
May your hearts be full, and may peace find you. 
VJ
No Adjectives Necessary
Robin is absent
Winter’s silence
inviting retreat
Children embrace adventure
while I, behind panes,
watch fluctuations
await harbinger’s return.
(This poem was written for a challenge from my poetry circle: to write a poem without adjectives. Image my own).
Great Blue Flies In and Out
Heron steps into my dream,
cachinnating…
paradigm shifts,
and I am awake
brooding over
the invasion
remembering days
we lived in tandem –
Great Blue and I –
that Texan winter
I brace for Northern cold,
and heron, on departure, laughs
(Image my own)
The Pilgrimage
A soft-sided,
well worn,
briefcase
slouches
in a closet
One side agape,
a red lanyard
stuffed inside –
occupational identity
A row of black, brown, and gray pumps
line up beside it – a thin layer of dust
betraying idleness.
Silent, unblinking,
a television recedes
into the wall,
flanked on either side
by smiling images –
shadows of nostalgia.
Stacks of books
and journals
rumour
a scholarly mind.
The woman,
to whom all these trivialities
once had relevance
is no longer here.
She has been called to another purpose.
(Originally written in 2014, The Pilgrimage strives to help me understand the purpose behind losing all to illness. Image my own)
Pondering Abstracts
The certainty of yesterday
has slipped our grasp
light deflecting truth
tosses us into the abstract
I ponder process
and outcomes,
will my mind to carry me
gliding between thermals
dissolving into vapours
Some realities
too hard to bear –
dislodged
we tread the indeterminate.
(Poem originally appeared on One Woman’s Quest II, December ’19. Image my own)
One Woman's Quest 